A DESCRIPTION OF THE REQUEST :
When a tab on a JTabbedPane is enabled or disabled, no property change event is fired. So there is not a general way to detect when a tab is enabled or disabled.

JUSTIFICATION :
A PropertyChangeEvent is fired when the enabled state of any other component is changed, so it would make sense to have one for this. Also, there are already tab-specific events fired for some other things (such as when a tab's title changes).

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
A PropertyChangeEvent is fired when the enabled state of a tab in a JTabbedPane is changed.
ACTUAL -
No event is fired for notifying property change listeners that the enabled state of a tab is changed.

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
The only solution I've found is to create a subclass like this:

public class CustomTabbedPane extends JTabbedPane {
public CustomTabbedPane() {
super();
}

public CustomTabbedPane(int tabPlacement, int tabLayoutPolicy) {
super(tabPlacement, tabLayoutPolicy);
}

public CustomTabbedPane(int tabPlacement) {
super(tabPlacement);
}

@Override
public void setEnabledAt(int index, boolean enabled) {
boolean oldEnabled = isEnabledAt(index);
super.setEnabledAt(index, enabled);
if (oldEnabled != enabled) {
firePropertyChange("tabEnabled", oldEnabled, enabled);
}
}
}